Sermon Tone Analysis

Does everybody know who Joseph Smith is?

He is the founder of the Mormon Faith is buried at the Smith Family Cemetery in Nauvoo Illinois.

You can visit it if you wish.

L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology is dead, but he chose to be cremated and had his ashes spread over the pacific ocean.

I am sure that the Scientologist will sell you video of his cremation- the path to their secret knowledge is almost always for sale!

You cannot visit his grave but there is no doubt he is dead.

Muhammad is buried in the "Mosque of the Prophet" in the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Muhammad's grave lies within the confines of what used to be his house.

During his lifetime it adjoined the mosque, which was expanded to include his tomb.

You won’t be able to see Muhammad's grave itself since the area is cordoned off by a gold mesh and black curtains.

Millions of visitors come to visit it every year.

You can get a passport, and perhaps a body guard or two, and join them in visiting the grave of Muhammad if you really want to.

Dead founders of dead religions with false promises backed by bold lies.

But you cannot visit the grave of Jesus- because our Lord and Savior may have died, but he didn’t stay dead.

Christ is Risen!

Isaiah 55:1–11 (CSB)

1 “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost! 2 Why do you spend silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods.

3 Pay attention and come to me; listen, so that you will live.

I will make a permanent covenant with you on the basis of the faithful kindnesses of David. 4 Since I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples, 5 so you will summon a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you will run to you.

For the Lord your God, even the Holy One of Israel, has glorified you.” 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near.

7 Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, so he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will freely forgive.

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.”

This is the Lord’s declaration.

9 “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, 11 so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”

Romans 6:3–11 (CSB)

3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again.

Death no longer rules over him.

10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 27:62–66 (CSB)

62 The next day, which followed the preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember that while this deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’

64 So give orders that the tomb be made secure until the third day.

Otherwise, his disciples may come, steal him, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.”

65 “You have a guard of soldiers,” Pilate told them.

“Go and make it as secure as you know how.” 66 They went and secured the tomb by setting a seal on the stone and placing the guards.

Matthew 28:1–10 (CSB)

1 After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb. 2 There was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb.

He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it.

3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow.

4 The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men.

5 The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

6 He is not here.

For he has risen, just as he said.

Come and see the place where he lay.

7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there.’

Listen, I have told you.”

8 So, departing quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to tell his disciples the news.

9 Just then Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!”

They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.

10 Then Jesus told them, “Do not be afraid.

Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?

The ultimate question for the Christian faith and for our individual lives is this: Did Jesus rise from the dead?

Was Jesus dead for three days, was he placed in a tomb, and did he rise from the grave and walk out of that tomb as a living, breathing man?

That is a simple question of truth, one that doesn’t rely on hopes or preference.

Jesus is Risen or He isn’t.

If Jesus didn’t rise from the grave, then we as Christians are wasting our time.

Our faith is a lie, and we are simply fools playing a religious game.

I

1 Corinthians 15:14 (CSB) 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith.

1 Corinthians 15:19 (CSB) 19 If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.

Most people think that the burden of proof lies exclusively on Christians to give evidence of the resurrection, but that’s not entirely true.

Yes, there’s a burden of proof on those who believe in Christ, but there’s also a burden of proof on unbelievers.

Consider below what must be explained.

There’s no question, even among the most secular of scholars, that around 2,000 years ago an entirely new religious movement and community were formed—almost overnight.

And immediately, hundreds of people started claiming that Jesus rose from the grave, even when it meant they could die for such a claim.

A fast-growing movement of people, which now makes up one-third of the world’s population by some estimates, survives as a result.

So how do you explain that?

If you don’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus, then there’s a burden of proof to provide some other convincing explanation for how the church began.

We need to consider several alternative explanations with the following question in mind: “Which is most plausible?”Plausibility

should be the criterion for “proving” the resurrection, because there’s virtually nothing in history that can be established with 100-percent certainty.

For instance, can we really know with 100-percent certainty that George Washington was the first president of the United States?

Is it not possible that he was just a mythical figure that people wrote about and invented in order to encourage the citizens of a new country?

Now we’re almost certain this is not the case, but we can’t say with 100-percent certainty that he was president.

Someone once said, “We can’t know with 100-percent certainty that all of us were not created five minutes ago, complete with built-in memories and food in our stomachs.”

You can see how much of a headache it is to establish perfect certainty for any past event!

The question is “What is most plausible?”

or “What can be established with the most certainty?”

Several possible explanations have been given.

The Arguments Against He Is Risen

Jesus Didn’t Die On The Cross!

Muslims, for example, say that Jesus didn’t go to the cross, but rather the individual who died on the cross only looked like Jesus.

According to the Quran, this is what Mohammed taught.

This is a point where the two dominant religions in the world—Christianity and Islam—diverge, and notice that this is a point of truth, not of preference or ideology or opinion.

Despite what Mohammed said six centuries after it happened, those much closer to the historical situation (Christian and non-Christian alike) reported that it was indeed Jesus who died on the cross.

Others have said Jesus of Nazareth went to the cross, but instead of dying, He was only hurt (really, really badly).

As the theory goes, Jesus fainted and became unconscious, at which time the soldiers thought He was dead.

However, due to the time constraints with the Passover feast, they took Him down before He actually died and they quickly buried Him.

Later, Jesus regained consciousness and escaped from the tomb.

This possibility explains how the tomb was empty without Jesus being resurrected, but it is full of flaws.

It assumes that Jesus went through brutal scourging, thorns thrust into His head, nails thrust into His hands and feet, and after hours on a cross, He had a spear thrust into His side.

Then, as if that weren’t enough, He was wrapped in grave clothes and put in a tomb with a large stone rolled over the entrance.

This tomb was guarded by armed Roman soldiers.

Soldiers are expert in telling the living from the dead, it is practically written in the job description.

And the Roman soldiers were very practiced in what they did.

There are no other reports of this sloppiness.

And the Crucifixion of Jesus was very high profile.